Clare Vassallo, who resigned last week as a member of the National Council of Women after the council spoke out against the introduction of the morning after pill, today expressed herself against abortion, saying the two are completely different issues.

Dr Vassallo, an academic, resigned following the group’s conservative stance against the morning after pill, communicated through a statement which was published by The Malta Independent.

Her resignation was reported first in The Malta Independent, and later picked up by other media.

Today, Dr Vassallo clarified her position in the wake of comments about the stand she took.

“After all the fuss in the press from a post I placed in the Women 4 Women group, and all the comments the articles drew from many people, I feel I have to state my position regarding abortion. I am not in favour of abortion, but I am STRONGLY in favour of seriously adequate contraception, including emergency contraception, or MAP.

“Contraception eliminates the desperate decisions some women make in either having an unwanted baby or terminating a pregnancy. I would hate to be in that situation. Adequate contraception, including the pill taken a few hours after mistakes are made (broken condoms, rape, etc) should be easily available because they MUST be taken within hours. All discussion of blastocysts, life in cells, and so on is irrelevant a few hours after the act.

“Those who insist on confusing contraception with abortion are fundamentalists with nothing better to do with their time and their energy. In the past, many hours and much intelligence was wasted on debating the number of angels that fit on the head of a pin. For those interested in debating the moment of conception in such minute ridiculous detail, I recommend they look up those similarly useless debates so that they might recognise themselves and their wasted energy.”